Oxford University Press (OUP) has been forced to suspend the sale of one of its dictionaries after a reference to the city of Bangalore sparked anger in India. OUP issued an apology for the errors and said it would pulp any remaining copies of The Concise Dictionary of World Place Names following complaints by local historians that comments made about the capital city of the southern state of Karnataka were wrong.
The dictionary had stated that the chief language of the city's population was Bengali, when in fact the official language of the state is Kannada. Mistakes were also found in references to who founded Bangalore and when.
"We cannot tolerate the scant respect for Karnataka's history. We had written a letter to them [OUP] asking them to rectify the mistake and to withdraw the copies carrying wrong information," the secretary to Karnataka's government department of Kannada and culture, I M Vittal Murthy, was quoted as saying in the Khaleej Times Online. The Times of India reported that protests were expected outside the local OUP office today.
However, on Friday, OUP, a department of the University of Oxford, issued a statement apologising for the mistakes. "OUP is deeply sorry about the errors that have been brought to our attention in The Concise Dictionary of World Place Names. We have frozen stock and stopped selling from our warehouse, and will be pulping the remaining copies," read the statement. "We sincerely apologise for the offence that this error has caused and we would like to assure all concerned that we will be putting this right as a matter of extreme urgency."
The 600-page dictionary, edited by John Everett-Heath, a former military diplomat and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, claims to give the history, meaning and origins of country, region, island, city and town names from across the world. It was first published in 2005.
OXFORD University Press has apologised for errors in The Concise Dictionary of World Place Names about places in India.
Kirsty McHugh, publicity assistant for trade, reference and academic books at the Walton Street-based publisher, said OUP was "deeply sorry" for the errors. She said: "We have frozen stocks and will be pulping the remaining copies. We sincerely apologise for the offence that this error has caused."
This book [The Concise Dictionary of World Place Names] has been pulled by OUP from the Indian market after local academics noted many factual errors. It refers to Bangalore as being in a Bengali-speaking state, deriving the name from a local chief called Banga. Actually Bengali is spoken in Bengal, and Kannada in Bangalore, which is the capital of Karnataka. The dictionary also incorrectly places the true founder of Bangalore, Kowda, in the Hoysala dynasty.
The Karnataka State government has submitted a list of corrections to OUP, who have pulped their stocks in India. See Khaleej Times, 20 May 2007 Oxford apologises for Bangalore-Bengali goof-up; and Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 May 2007 Oxford U. Press Pulls Geographical Dictionary After Outcry in India.
Yet the book remains on sale elsewhere despite factual errors. Is this because no one outside India cares about factual errors in relation to India? Or because only in India did anyone notice and protest? So much for OUP's editorial reputation. Until a new, corrected edition is published, do not buy this book. OUP should be ashamed of such sloppy research and editorial work.